Introduction

What is the central theme of Ecclesiastes chapter one? Upon careful and repeated reading, we discover that the Preacher emphasizes one theme: to diligently seek and examine what it means to be alive. Why do we say this? Because at the beginning of the chapter, the author immediately poses a question:

“What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.” (Ecclesiastes 1:3-7)

“There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.” (Ecclesiastes 1:11)

Verses 3-7 describe observations made by the Preacher, while verse 11 reflects an observation's conclusion. In verse 13, the author states, I applied my heart to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. Verse 17 further states, And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. From these verses, I conclude that the theme of this chapter is to diligently seek and examine what it truly means to be alive.

“I applied my heart to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven: God has given mankind a task most wearisome.” (Ecclesiastes 1:13)

“**And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to probe madness and folly. I learned that this too is a chasing after the wind.**” (Ecclesiastes 1:17)

Seeing Through Life as Utterly Meaningless

Why do we study Ecclesiastes? Because in my ministry, I have found that many people simply cannot understand life. This morning, I called a sister whose 12-year-old daughter has lupus. This is a very cruel disease that disrupts the immune system and gradually wears down the body.

She said something that shocked me: The child still has to go to school! Even with lupus, she still has to go to school. Is school more important than life itself? I was very surprised and shared my own views with her.

What has been trending online these past few days? It is the story of a bus in Chongqing that plunged into a river, killing all fifteen people on board. After a difficult salvage operation, a surveillance video revealed that a passenger was arguing and fighting with the bus driver. As a result, the bus driver let go of the steering wheel to fight, and in those few seconds, the bus plunged into the river, killing everyone. Can you understand this? What were these people doing? If they knew they only had a few seconds left to live, would they still be arguing? No. People simply do not understand what it means to be alive!

Today, I want to ask everyone a question: Do you want to live well? Of course, you do! Many people dream of living well, but their approach to life is astonishing. Someone went for a job interview but failed and broke down. He thought that getting the job would allow him to live well, but is that really the case? Not necessarily. Some people think they can live well by studying abroad, but that's not guaranteed either.

I use examples to show you that our generation is a sorrowful one. Recently, the death of the famous host Li Yong at the age of 50 was widely mourned. The fathers of two of my good friends have also passed away, and everyone has sent condolences. Jin Yong is dead, Hawking is dead, and my respected Shan Tianfang is also dead. This is truly a generation of death. But in every generation, people die constantly; it has never decreased. Can the deaths of these people stimulate us to have a heart of diligent seeking and examination? Should we not examine what it means to be alive?

Few people in this generation see through life. If you do, you will definitely live well. If you see through it, you will not idly argue with a bus driver and end up perishing together. Today, we read Ecclesiastes so that everyone can wake up and carefully examine what people are doing. If people in this world do not understand that life is utterly meaningless—that all labor under the sun is meaningless and a chasing after the wind—you will live diligently in this meaninglessness and chasing after the wind. And if you are diligent enough, the end will be the same as the arguing bus driver.

There are many people like this in this generation. I also know a greedy person whom I have known since childhood. After being greedy, he became so fearful that he passed blood every day and eventually died. If you saw through life, would you do such a foolish thing?

Living is a Spiritual Matter

Why do people not live well? It is because they lack the Tao, and they cannot see through life and cannot understand it. Today's Ecclesiastes is a book that preaches the truth. The Bible classifies Ecclesiastes as a book of wisdom, and everyone must carefully study it. If you cannot understand this, you will often struggle. This is why many of our brothers and sisters still live in struggle.

Here is an interesting phenomenon: If you tie food to a rat's tail and put it in a large bucket, you will see the rat constantly chasing the food tied to its tail, trying to eat it but unable to, running around in circles. If you do not understand the things of the world, you are about as smart as that rat, constantly working hard but always returning to the starting point. People must have the Tao! To live well, people must have the Tao of living.

A few days ago, I shared with a brother who asked: How should I deal with my worldly dreams? I said: It's simple. Don't think too far ahead. Just think about when you are in your coffin. One day you will lie in a coffin, and all your dreams of going abroad, getting rich, and all those other dreams will vanish. What will remain? Just a skeleton.

People need to know for sure what it means to be alive and to know that this is God's design. God's purpose in designing this is to select those He considers treasures from among these people and bring them into His kingdom while throwing those He considers garbage into the lake of fire and sulfur.

Living is a spiritual matter. The spiritual realm is very real. Can you understand what I mean by this? In my designed 101 course, I tell you at the outset that the spiritual realm is real and that this world is merely a shadow of the spiritual realm. That is why people in this world are chasing after the wind.

The more seriously you live in this world, the more diligently you try to chase after the wind, and the more certainly the coffin awaits you. If you have a coffin, you should be grateful, because many people do not even have a coffin. By the time you get to the 201 course, we talk about coming out of a meaningless life. Today, I want to completely destroy your worldly dreams and logic. That is why I want to bring you to read Ecclesiastes.

If someone else wrote Ecclesiastes, you might not believe it. But the one who wrote Ecclesiastes is great: Solomon, unparalleled before and after him, a man of great wisdom who reigned in Jerusalem. His father was the famous King David.

Solomon was extraordinary! He experienced all the things in the world and found that life was just so-so. So he wrote Ecclesiastes to get people out of this worldly dream and into the real spiritual realm. If I didn't tell you about the spiritual realm, we couldn't talk about anything else. So the Bible says that a spiritual person sees through everything. If you are not a spiritual person, you live in a maze and cannot see clearly at all.

There is a Chinese saying that one does not shed tears until one sees the coffin. When people do not see the coffin, they always feel very busy with this and that. They are busy with work and study, living very seriously. As a result, they end up living without understanding the reality of the spiritual realm. Today, I can tell you that all disasters are spiritual matters. If you violate the principles of the spiritual world, you cannot live well. If you violate the principles of the spiritual realm, this world will pierce you with toil and sorrow.

Discerning Good and Evil is Very Evil

Today, I heard a very interesting testimony that I will share with everyone. It doesn't matter if you think I am exaggerating, but this is a true story. A sister had a serious habit of discerning good and evil. She liked to keep anything she disagreed with to herself. This time, she saw something that displeased her again. We don't need to go into details about what it was. She kept her discomfort to herself and didn't tell me.

I want to tell the brothers and sisters that if you see something you can't stand, you must learn a lesson: do not discern good and evil. Brothers and sisters, when you see something that you don't like, when you hear something that makes you uncomfortable, when your heart is in turmoil, I tell you, it’s very easy for something to go wrong! What happened? She had a car accident while riding her electric bike, and her ribs were fractured, which was excruciatingly painful. But having learned from me that the spiritual realm is real, she insisted on praying and not going to the hospital.

When I heard about her fractured ribs, my first reaction was to send her to the hospital immediately. Although this sister easily discerns good and evil, she understands the workings of the spiritual realm and will not go to the hospital; she insists on praying. I told her that we would not stop her from going to the hospital and that if she insisted on not going, it was her choice and we could not be responsible for any consequences. Later, she insisted on praying, so I arranged for a colleague to pray with her. As a result, the bone that was sticking out after the fracture was actually leveled, and the pain was not so severe.

After praying, she went home, but we were still very worried. What if something went wrong? Sure enough, she started to have a fever when she got home. We thought: Isn't this an inflammation? So we persuaded her to go to the hospital, but she still refused. We were all very anxious. The next day, she said she knew what the problem was. After going back and forth, she was in pain for a while and then she was fine. She said it was because she was discerning good and evil. Then she repented and prayed and was completely healed. Can you understand this? I can't understand it because it goes beyond my medical knowledge.

People do not understand the spiritual world, and anything can happen. A bus can fall into a river, one can have a car accident while riding an electric bike, and children can get lupus. Isn't this deadly! Later, I learned why she got lupus. Although this sister is a believer, she is very ignorant of the spiritual realm.

What was the cause of the lupus? This sister's father passed away. A person's death is a very spiritual matter, and this sister took her child to burn paper money and visit her father's grave. This is a Chinese custom, but she did not know about the spiritual realm, and as a result, her child contracted the disease. Do you think this is an accident, a coincidence, or what? This world is only a shadow in the spiritual realm, and we must see through this spiritual matter. Diligently seek, diligently examine, and diligently observe what it means to be alive.

When Things Happen, Practice Not Caring

We often see foreigners who shrug their shoulders and say, So What, meaning, Then what? My son often uses this phrase, and I am often choked up. I was telling my son something with great interest, and my son said, So What, and I was immediately speechless. I tell you, it is okay to shrug your shoulders and say So What when something happens, whether you are busy or not. One sentence can immediately shut down someone. The worldly system within oneself is shut down. For example, parents break down when their children do not study well. Have you all learned this English word now? In the future, when something happens, just say So What. It doesn't matter.

Seek and you will find. God has been waiting for you there for a long time. Do you understand? The thing that you seek is called the Tao. In contrast, being busy means having no Tao. People work hard and then die. If you take something too seriously, you will work hard for it. Many times people cannot even imagine or know that they are taking the bus home, arguing with people on the bus, and then the bus plunges into the river, and they go home forever.

What is the Tao? The Tao is that when you encounter some small things or even big things, you say So What!. Then, when your life is about to come to an end, you suddenly realize that you are fortunate to have lived with the Tao in this world. If you have no Tao, you really cannot live well.

Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them. (Ecclesiastes 1:4-11)

This world is really interesting. It is constantly cycling. Some people say that the trends of this generation are constantly being updated, and there are new things! For example, the cell phone, the iPhone X has come out, the Huawei P20 has come out, and the Huawei Mate 20 has also come out. Are these new things? I can't argue with you because you are not standing high enough. You just see the new version of the cell phone, but if you stand a little higher, it is probably the same, and there is nothing new.

This world is an infinitely cyclical world. Why did the author of Ecclesiastes say that it is utterly meaningless? Because he found that this world will continue to cycle infinitely, and you can only live for seventy or eighty years. What do you think will happen after seventy or eighty years? He who gives no thought to the future is sure to be beset by worries in the present. Let me tell you that, not to mention the distant future, just think about what happens after your coffin. When you attend a funeral, look at the coffin and think about the person lying in it.

People have a small regret in living: once they enter the coffin, it is the end. We cannot go to heaven first, watch, and then come back, or go to hell, watch, and then come back. If you seek diligently through observation, you should understand. Don't wait until the bus falls into the river to understand, and don't wait until it is too late to understand. If you listen to what I say, if you don't get the job after the interview, come back and say So What”. If you go to make money but don't make it, then say So What! You may inevitably feel a little uncomfortable in your heart, but you will not be too uncomfortable.

What the sister said earlier was even more interesting. She often has epilepsy, but she is still thinking about her dream of going abroad. You have epilepsy; what country are you going to go to? Today, many people do not read Ecclesiastes, do not seek or observe that this world is always cycling, and do not know that they are only sojourners in this world.

How many people can really see through it? If you can't see through it, it doesn't matter. You have to seek well, observe well, and then examine one by one. Do you know why I am like this today? Because I have seen through it, and there are not many things in this world that make me unhappy. I told my colleagues that in the future, when you grow up and your wings are stiff, if you feel that you cannot swim in this small pond and want to be a big fish in the sea, there is no problem. I don't care at all. I don't want to stretch my hands so long, and I don't want to manage so many things. What is my purpose? It's just to make your wings stiff, and then you can fly as high as you want, it doesn't matter.

Why can I see through? What can you grasp in this life? Always controlling this and controlling that is just to give yourself a little sense of security. If you see through it, if you are a person with Tao, you will understand that grasping those things is meaningless. Know that everything is utterly meaningless, that all labor is of no benefit, do not spin around, and observe and seek well.

The first thing I hate most is superstition, and the second is religion and cults. Cults kill many people and confuse the people. They do not cultivate the land and just do some boring things. But rest assured, if you don't work hard here, you will be disciplined. But if you are busy working all day long and you do so under great pressure, you will also be scolded. We have to figure this out.

We know that the spiritual realm is real. God has designed a system to enable people to make the right choices. After choosing, you must understand that this is a test. God will judge every deed, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. You ask me how I know? Because I sought and observed like Solomon and understood when I observed the coffin.

Know that the original intention is to fear God, to carefully keep and obey God's words, and to carefully keep His commandments. This is the duty of man.

Some time ago, my classmates and I had dinner together. In the middle of the dinner, I received a phone call saying that a classmate had been admitted to the intensive care unit. We drove over to see him, but we were not allowed to enter the intensive care unit. The next day, we went to the funeral home, and he was lying in the coffin. When we counted, there were fifty elementary school classmates, and six had already passed away. It turns out that it is good to look at the coffin when you are alive in this world, because one day you and I will go in. Moreover, it is not enough to see only the coffin. You must see the thing behind the coffin to be effective, to know what it means to live, and to know that the spiritual realm is very real.

What good is labor? After laboring, what is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is missing cannot be counted. In other words, no matter how hard you work, it is of no benefit. Have you ever seen people who are so busy that they are poor, and some people who are not so busy but are rich? It seems that the amount of busyness in this world has no direct relationship with people's lives. It seems that people often think that they can create their own destiny with their hands, but in reality, they cannot.

There are many masters in this world. Today, there is a master named Ma Yun. He said: I don't know how I succeeded, but I probably know how I failed. Sometimes money seems to come from the wind. Everything makes money. When he is unlucky, nothing makes money. It seems to have little to do with your efforts. Effort cannot create destiny. What can create destiny? Your life is determined by the spiritual realm!

Some people are very accurate in their fortune-telling, and I admire them very much. But as I learn more and more about the things in the spiritual realm, I find that I am more accurate than the fortune-tellers. Brothers and sisters must know that everything in this world is a shadow in the spiritual realm, so being busy in this world is chasing after the wind! Do you want to continue chasing after the wind in this world?

To Be a Man of Dao (the Way)

Start being a man of Dao, extricating yourself from the vicious cycle of chasing after fleeting rewards. Once you break free, you will understand that it is God's design. I am not trying to mislead you, for I am absolutely qualified to say this. Know that living as a human being entails fearing God and keeping His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

If God gives us a test of faith today, can you say to Him: God, I must overcome this test of faith. This world is characterized by many people becoming weak-kneed at the first sign of testing. In other words, they falter as soon as they are put to the test. That will not do; we cannot be like that. When encountering anything, know that it is a test from God, and overcome it.

We must have an understanding of the things of the spiritual realm. Initially, you may not know, but if you carefully review the path you have walked over the past few decades, you will find that it has been nothing more than toil and trouble. Know that toil is useless; you must have Dao. This Dao is to constantly and attentively examine and seek. I do not encourage superstition; I encourage everyone to believe clearly, to make a clear choice, to come out of this life of toil, and to know how real spiritual things are.

The stories I tell are all true; do not think I am trying to mislead you. One day, my mother spoke to me in a strange tone, and her voice was not quite right. I will tell you a secret: when the spirit of a weasel possesses a person, that person will develop lumps in their armpits. When I felt that something was wrong with my mother, I reached out and grabbed her armpit, which made her scream. I said: Who are you? Then the evil spirit spoke through my mother's mouth: I am your mother. I pinched harder and asked: Who are you? Then it said: Aiyah! I am Old Ma! I asked: When did you come? She said: I came at noon. Then this old lady in her eighties started wrestling with me; three people could not hold her down. That is how much strength she had. It exhausted me completely. Later, it took me an hour or so to drive out this demon.

When my mother woke up, she cried and said: Child, if you had not prayed hard and driven out the demon, I would not have been able to return. I asked what happened. She said: I was caught by someone. So the one who was speaking in her body was not my mother at all. Everyone must know that it is the Spirit who gives life. Old Ma had captured my mother's spirit, holding a gun to her back, forcing her to climb the Tower of Babel. When she climbed two-thirds of the way up, she heard us praying, and she tried hard to shout, but we could not hear her. She saw a tall, large man in red standing in front of her, who said: Let go! Then the demon ran away. Later, that man said: Go back and shepherd my little sheep! My mother explained it very clearly. She cried and said: Fortunately, you prayed, otherwise I would not have been able to return. Wanting to return but being unable to return, that is what it is like. The spiritual realm is very real; it turns out that when a person's spirit leaves their body, it is like this.

Many people torment their families before they die; it turns out that it is not your father or your mother anymore, but the spirit of death. It is possible that the spirit of the family member has already been captured, and they are struggling there.

If you were me and had personally experienced this, what would you think? It turns out that when a person dies, it is not like blowing out a candle. If one day you dream that the guardians of hell come to find you, you will probably know what has happened, which is that you have been caught and taken to hell. At that time, you will be calling to heaven and earth, but no one will answer. Why? Because when you were alive, you did not investigate all these things in this world attentively.

Why is your pressure so great? Why are you often confused? Why are you often conflicted in your heart? Because you do not understand! If you understand, if you have Dao within you, you will not care about these things. While you are alive, understand what living is all about! You say that you dream of living well, then today, see through these things with me. Do not be superstitious, do not mess around blindly, understand things properly, and be released from the toil of operations. If you stand at the height of God's throne and look down, you will see how foolish the people on earth are.

Why is it that today we no longer compete or control? Why do we only do things that edify others today? Why do we rarely get angry or entangled? Because we have seen through it! The spiritual person judges all things, and it turns out that the things of this world are not important.

Conclusion: See Through All Things and Live Out God's Beautiful Image

Remember, all these things are vanity of vanities; all is chasing after the wind. No matter how hard you toil, you cannot make the crooked straight, or supply what is lacking. Destiny is a reaction in the spiritual realm, so victory in the spirit can turn many things around! The testimony of the healed fracture—because I had faith like a mustard seed within me, it was healed just like that. Even a fracture is a spiritual matter. You say, how real is this spiritual world?

I have experienced many stories, all related to the spiritual realm. If you encounter these things in the world, start pondering and investigating the things of this world. If you cannot see through them, it does not matter; the Spirit of God will surely help you see through them. If you see through them, you will say, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. Why should I be tangled and depressed in these vain days? Why should I not seize God tightly and live out God's beautiful image in these vain days? Why should I not live out true joy in these vain days? If you can see through them, nothing can control you anymore, and nothing can make you tangled and uncomfortable anymore.

May God bless everyone!

Scripture

Ecc 1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Ecc 1:2 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
Ecc 1:3 What profit has a man from all his labor In which he toils under the sun?
Ecc 1:4 One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever.
Ecc 1:5 The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, And hastens to the place where it arose.
Ecc 1:6 The wind goes toward the south, And turns around to the north; The wind whirls about continually, And comes again on its circuit.
Ecc 1:7 All the rivers run into the sea, Yet the sea is not full; To the place from which the rivers come, There they return again.
Ecc 1:8 All things are full of labor; Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor the ear filled with hearing.
Ecc 1:9 That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun.
Ecc 1:10 Is there anything of which it may be said, “See, this is new”? It has already been in ancient times before us.
Ecc 1:11 There is no remembrance of former things, Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come By those who will come after.
Ecc 1:12 I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
Ecc 1:13 And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this grievous task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised.
Ecc 1:14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind.
Ecc 1:15 What is crooked cannot be made straight, And what is lacking cannot be counted.
Ecc 1:16 I communed with my heart, saying, “Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge.”
Ecc 1:17 And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.
Ecc 1:18 For in much wisdom is much grief, And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.